npm i llnode

[Fishrock123]

I think this should be possible to install on a global install via npm scripts, @indutny is there any reason you didn't go this route?

[indutny]

I don't mind if someone will make it work 😉

[hhellyer]

It would definitely be nice to have a simpler way to install llnode, especially on Linux.
I'm not 100% sure on using npm to install things that aren't going to be node code but there's also the possibility of adding a javascript API to llnode in which case it would make more sense.

It could write a plugin load command to ~/.lldbinit instead of needing root access to install the plugin in lldb's plugin directory. There will probably be issues around using the right version of lldb, on ubuntu it's possible to have multiple versions installed as lldb-3.8, lldb-3.9.

I'm happy to take a look at doing this. Should we reserve the name llnode on npmjs.org?

[indutny]

Sure, go ahead!

[Fishrock123]

Two things: make sure you register with a version that llnode has not used, like 0.0.0. Also, we should publish some basic install instructions there in the mean time.

[hhellyer]

I've grabbed the llnode npm name. I've added @indutny as a collaborator. (Assuming that isn't someone else with the same picture on npmjs.org.)
I assume the npm installer should work for Mac and Linux (as a minimum) and I'll probably look at what the brew installer is doing.

[indutny]

(Yep, that's me)

[hhellyer]

@indutny Making progress on this but I've got a question, why did you use llnode.gyp instead of binding.gyp?

The background to this is that for some reason npm doesn't copy llnode.gyp (Edit: it doesn't copy it even if you add a files entry) I think there's something special about .gyp but I don't know what. Also you can't stop npm copying binding.gyp.
I may end up changing the build process slightly, I'm also trying to figure out if it's possibly to use the gyp packaged with npm rather than cloning it during the build process so the only thing that may need cloning is the lldb headers.

[hhellyer]

I've pushed a branch https://github.com/hhellyer/llnode/tree/npm_prototype which you are welcome to try however it's not final, part of the reason for pushing to github is to make it easy to test it on more machines.

[indutny]

@hhellyer splendid! Will take a look.

btw, I forgot to mention it, but I have solved similar problem in bud: https://github.com/indutny/bud

[hhellyer]

Cool, I've flattened the branch a bit and copied your solution to .gyp. I still need a better solution for not cloning gyp than my current one but I'm going to do some testing with different installs of lldb first in case I hit any show stoppers.

[indutny]

@hhellyer looks pretty cool except for the JS code style ;) Feel free to open PR whenever you'll feel that it is ready and we will collaborate there on it!

Thank you

[hhellyer]

I've updated the prototype, if anyone wants to try it. It's a bit neater and now outputs the lldb command to use to load the plugin.

I've a couple of questions before I turn it into a PR:

• Is there any use in putting up this up as an npm, for example with a version of 0.0.1, for testing? (Does that behave differently to a git install?)
• Does anyone have a better idea for locating gyp? (Better than my use of npm explore in configure.js!) I'm trying to avoid having to download if as it is possible to avoid doing any git clones if the lldb headers are already on the machine.

It can be installed from git with:
npm install hhellyer/llnode#npm_prototype